Game Basics

Basic Controls

Chapter 1 essentially walks you through the basic controls of the game, from movement, to sprinting, attacking, healing, etc. You will only get a few more training messages for zero-G and re-spec, but for the most part, the tutorials in chapter 1 are all you need.

Where's my HUD?

Dead Space's game designers opted for the HUD-less HUD; all the information you need to know about Isaac (health, items, etc.) are displayed on his RIG and the holo-projector in his inventory.

Total ammunition is visible when selecting weapons, and the current number of rounds in a magazine are visible on a weapon when it is brought up to be aimed.

Quick heal

Completely upgrade the RIG and Stasis Module (SP only). 23 power nodes will be needed for this.

Instead of using medkits from the inventory, you can opt to use the largest medkit in your current inventory by pressing the Quick Heal button. One of the extra accolades is to use the Quick Heal ten times.

Defending yourself.

You can defend yourself by attacking by swinging your weapon by firing without aiming, or by stomping on the downed enemies. Aiming and firing will shoot your current weapon. Aiming and stomping will trigger the ALT-fire (or alternate fire mode).

Different weapons have different uses -- some have different applications and fare better or worse against different enemies.

Stasis and Kinesis

Kinesis is sometimes abbreviated as TK (this is an error since the kinesis is mechanical, not psychic but whatever dude - space zombies). With it, you can lift spars of metal and shoot them out like harpoons or spears.

Stasis is handy because you can slow down an enemy until it is moving slow as molasses. Since stasis energy recharges (slowly) now, you can wait for the meter to recharge if you weather a fight. Stasis packs will refill the meter instantly and is handy for tough fights or boss fights.

Powering Up

Isaac slowly becomes more powerful as he collects items and power-ups. In subsequent rounds, he can breeze through the game quickly and earn plenty of ammunition (to sell for Credits) so he can complete Zealot difficulty with little trouble.

Plans for new weapons, ammunition, space suits and other items are the key to how you unlock them for later access in a Standtech™ store. Once a schematic is uploaded to a store, it can be purchased using credits. Schematics (glows dark blue) are easy to locate ... if you explore.

These items are found or purchased (once you uploaded the schematic) and are used to improve the abilities of weapons, your RIG, and the Stasis Module. Buying power nodes isn't recommended unless you have a lot of spare credits, as you cannot sell excess nodes (unlike ammunition and other items).

Power nodes can be recycled from one item to another once you reach the workbench in chapter 7, round 1 for 5000 Credits. Exploiting this ability lets you "heal" Isaac to full life by manipulating the HP nodes on the RIG.

The workbench.

To utilize the power nodes on your items, you need a workbench. You can use your locator to find workbenches (as well as save points, stores, and objectives) by cycling through the locator window when you have it active (use the D-Pad or Arrow keys).

The Standtech™ store.

The store doesn't do much until you bring schematics to unlock new items. Once you do, you can buy new items from the store, change space suits, and even (most importantly) store unused items and weapons there so you can retrieve them later. On the harder difficulties, this is important, as enemies relinquish fewer items on hard difficulty.